Brightness of Night
by DysprosiumOxide
Summary: The cold stone floors and walls brought no comfort to those who were imprisoned.' Naruto is in prison for murder. Can he stand it? Or will someone help him live through? SasuNaru and future-ness
1. Imprisonment and Freedom

The cell was cold, dark, and dank. The cold stone floors and walls brought no comfort to those imprisoned. The bed, a single mattress with a thin blanket and lumpy pillow, lay in the corner opposite from where he sat. His hair, which had darkened and had lost almost all of its color, now shrouded his face, where his eyes stare into nothingness. His eyes had become accustomed to the darkness of the cell. So accustomed, that when the ANBU would open the door outside his cell to bring him food, he cried out in pain from the sudden intensity of the light from the outdoors. In addition to these, a pair of old-fashioned wooden handcuffs had been clamped across his wrists, making it impossible for him to attempt any hand signs.

A loud creaking broke the silence, and a small chink of light splayed across the wall opposite. Naruto winced at the brightness, but otherwise, made no other movements. He heard footsteps approach the door to his cell, and heard the loud grinding of the door sliding open against the solid concrete flooring.

"He hasn't eaten for a few days... Maybe you can get him to...?" a voice whispered to some unknown person. It sounded distant, even if it was just a few feet from him.

More footsteps and the rustling of clothing signaled the approach of someone. Perhaps it was one of the ruthless guards, trying to force him to eat again. Or maybe, it was someone else...

A gentle hand lifted the hair that shrouded his eyes, and Naruto looked up, the bones in his neck crackling from immobility as he did so. A dark, slightly blurred outline of a person was all he could see. But even through the darkness, the cool, raven-black hair of the person seemed oddly familiar to him.

"Hey Naruto." said Sasuke. Naruto's eyes went wide with shock at the sight of his childhood friend. Sasuke's appearance hadn't changed much over the years; His hair was still the same rich black color that it had always been, with it slightly spiked in the back that makes him look like a cockateel, and his eyes were still the stony black that they always were - excepting the fact that he probably still had the sharingan eyes. The only thing that had noticeably changed about him was his clothing; He now wore a solid black hakama with the sleeves torn off. Both of his arms were wrapped in cloth bandages, with one going from the shoulder to the elbow, and the other going from the elbow down to his hand. His sword lay horizontally across his lower back, tightly bound in its sheath by more of the cloth bandaging.

Naruto opened his mouth to reply, his lips cracking from lack of nourishment, but no sound came out. He tried again, his vocal chords screaming from lack of use, and was able to squeak out a few syllables of the others name.

"Sa-su-ke...?" Naruto squeaked, wincing slightly at the pain coming from talking. Sasuke brought up a finger and placed it over Naruto's lips.

"You shouldn't talk. You could badly hurt your throat if you try." He then motioned for one of the guards. "Could you bring me a glass of water, please?" The guard nodded and momentarily disappeared from view, reappearing again with a glass of water. He handed it over to Sasuke, who thanked him, then brought the glass up to Naruto's lips.

"Here. You need to drink something." Naruto's hands came up to the glass and tried to grab onto it, but instead found his hands to be far too weak to even hold around the cup, let alone hold it up for him to get a drink. Sasuke noticed this and told him he'd hold up the glass for him while he drank. Naruto parted his chapped lips slightly and allowed Sasuke to tip the clear liquid into his mouth. The water was freezing, although there was no sight of ice or frost in the water, but the water tasted delicious all the same. After a few short gulps of the stuff, Sasuke brought the glass away and set it down beside him. Naruto feebly cleared his throat before speaking again.

"Why did you come here...?" he asked Sasuke. His voice was lower and somewhat raspier than he remembered, and was a little shocked. Sasuke looked down grimly before replying.

"When I heard that you had been imprisoned, and heard what the charges against you were, I grew very upset." Sasuke told him. He looked up at Naruto. "I first thought, 'This can't have been Naruto. I know him, and I just know that he would have to be utterly insane to commit these crimes.' But when I told Gaara of my thoughts, he told me that you had confessed upfront about the murders, and for me to remember the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox. I considered his words, and decided that I had to see for myself if this was true. So...here I am." Sasuke ended rather bleakly. Naruto nodded, lowering his head to hide his eyes beneath his hair again.

"I feel so stupid..." he said a while later. "I feel so...so weak. To think that I had let him take control of me, it's just so..." Sasuke saw Naruto's hands curl into fists angrily.

Neither of them talked for quite some time. Sasuke saw Naruto rub his face with his hands a few times, and guessed that he was crying out of shame and anger at himself.

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O

Later that same evening, when almost the entire village had gone to bed, Naruto lay on his mattress. His eyes were closed, but he was merely feigning sleep. Memories of Sasuke's visit played back in his mind, like a continuously repeating movie.

Flashback

Naruto wiped away a tear that had formed in the corner of his eye. He wished that Sasuke would say something, something to take his mind off of this horrible ordeal he was being forced to endure.

The sudden rustle of Sasuke's hakama nearly answered his wish as Sasuke leaned forward, resting his chin on Naruto's shoulder and shifting his arms so it appeared to the guards that he was hugging his friend.

"Naruto..." Sasuke whispered, almost inaudibly, in his ear. "...make sure that you're awake tonight, around midnight or so."

Naruto shifted his head slightly to show that he didn't understand, and was asking why.

"...I'm going to kidnap you tonight. I'm going to get you out of this filthy prison and take you somewhere safe."

This time, Naruto somewhat nuzzled his head against Sasuke's to show that he understood. Tears began to well up in his eyes again.

Sasuke pulled away from Naruto and stood up, picking up the glass of water as he did so, then walked toward the door to leave.

'See you tonight.' he mouthed to Naruto, and Naruto nodded.

/Flashback

Naruto sighed and sat back up, mumbling something about not being able to sleep just loud enough for the guard to hear. He turned and sat back against the cold brick wall, staring, without really looking, at the wall opposite.

Minutes passed, and he found a small spider jumping across the wall he was staring at. Oh, how he hated spiders. He continued to watch the spider creep up the wall until he lost track of time completely, utterly mesmerized by the tiny arachnid, until a loud, sudden sound erupted beside him, making him jump and look around.

The guard had collapsed, and standing beside him with one hand raised was Sasuke. Naruto guessed that Sasuke had simply knocked the guard unconscious by hitting a pressure point on his neck instead of using some other alternative. He watched Sasuke bend down and pick a ring of keys off of the guard, cross over to the door and unlock it, then stride quickly up to him.

"Hello again." Sasuke said. He knelt down and unlocked the padlock on the handcuffs, then pried the cuffs off of Naruto's wrists and threw the cuffs off to the side. Naruto rubbed his wrists, thanking him. He also noticed that Sasuke was now carrying a small pack on his shoulders.

"You're welcome. Now, we've got to hurry and get out of here. I'm quite sure that the guards should be switching any time now, and I don't think visitors are allowed inside the prison in the middle of the night." He reached into the pack and pulled out another black hakama, neatly folded so it would fit inside the pack.

"Here, put this on. You'll be less noticable in the darkness in this than if you kept wearing those prison clothes." he said, holding out the clothing. Naruto looked down at his current outfit of a dirty grey tee shirt and a pair of equally dirty black capri-length pants with mild disgust, then gladly accepted the clothing.

Seeing Sasuke wear a hakama, you'd think that putting one on wouldn't be all that hard. No. The first time that Naruto tried putting on the pants, Sasuke stopped him and said that he was putting them on backwards. As if he knew which way the stupid things were supposed to go, being tagless and all! Finally, after a few minutes of hassling and hurrying to get the clothing on, Naruto had successfully changed into the hakama, his prison clothing piled in a messy heap where he had sat.

Sasuke sighed, relieved. "Well, now. I think we should get going right about now." He started walking towards the door, but stopped when he saw that Naruto wasn't following. "Can you still, you know...walk properly? Or do I have to carry you?" There was a hint of urgency in his voice.

Naruto shook his head. "No, I just got a little lightheaded for a moment, but it's passed now." And with that, he walked with Sasuke out of the cell, past the guard, then outside. The luminous moon was a little too bright for Naruto, having been cooped up in the darkness of the prison for so long, and he winced slightly at the sudden brightness of night. Sasuke let Naruto's eyes adjust to the light for a moment, then together, they disappeared into the night, leaving no trace of themselves behind.

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O

lol I'm sorry, but did that whole 'brightness of night' part sound like an oxymoron? It did to me. Anyways, I hope you all like this random bit I wrote. There's probably going to be more of it, but it's gonna be part of a larger story that my friend Karri and I are developing (we're almost done with the first chapter, YAY!)

Please review! The button's right down there! You know you want to click it!

ViolentImpulses (aka Carrie) : 


	2. Trees and Confusion

I'm kind of glad how this one's turning out (in comparison with my other stories, two of which I've deleted because of their lameness cough). I'm just hoping that this'll get at least half as popular as my other story, Grim Fate (if you haven't read it already, then don't hesitate to do so. It's a really good read (according to my past readers)). I say half as popular because c'mon, nothing can beat a good rape/suspense story, right?

The plot bunnies have been keeping me on my toes lately, but they've been nice to have around. They help me fill the void in my life (don't ask, I'll rant angrily in your eyes D:).

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, nor does Sasuke and all of the others that I'm too lazy to name. They all rightfully belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

O0O0O0O0O0O

The bright moon's rays fought their way through the trees, with only a select few of them actually penetrating the leaves and being able to reach the ground. On the ground, shimmering pools of water had collected, a sign that it had rained not long ago. The clouds above were scattered and sparce, covering up the moon every so often and casting the ground below in a brief moment of darkness.

Through the trees two ninja leapt. They both adorned raven black hakamas and were noticably trying to get away from something. They moved fast, practically sprinting from branch to branch, barely setting their feet down on each branch before sending chakra through their feet, sending them rocketing forward. One of them, who had been imprisoned, was also noteably slower than the other.

Naruto began panting. He wasn't used to this much movement at once, at least not yet, and doing so was costing him a lot of energy. A few feet ahead of him, Sasuke finally noticed Naruto's actions and slowed up a bit.

"You alright, Naruto?" he asked the other.

"I'm just...a little...tired...is all." Naruto panted. "No need to...slow...down..." Sasuke stared at him for a few more seconds before jumping ahead slightly, then coming to a sudden halt. Naruto slowed down and stopped rather awkwardly on the branch beside him.

"What is it, Sasuke?" Naruto asked him. "Are we being followed?"

"No, we're not being followed." Sasuke answered, turning towards him.

"Then why'd we stop?"

"Because," Sasuke walked the short distance between them. "you need to rest. It wouldn't be very healthy for you to be moving around so much on an empty stomach." Sasuke sat down at Naruto's feet and pulled his pack out before him. Naruto sat down as well. Inside the pack was a large assortment of food, ranging between small snacks like granola and fruit bars to a bento box that was snuggled tightly down at the bottom. Naruto was astonished to see how much food was in the bag. He watched Sasuke pull out a few fruit and a couple of the granola bars and laid them out between them. It wasn't a full meal, more like a snack.

"Dig in." Sasuke said when he saw that Naruto wasn't doing so. Naruto hesitated.

"Aren't you going to eat too?" he asked. Sasuke dug around in the bag for a moment, finally pulling out a single banana.

"Just this. The rest of that's for you." he said, gesturing to the food between them. Naruto opened his mouth to protest about Sasuke's lack of eating when a loud growling erupted from Naruto's stomach. Sasuke laughed.

"Eat. I'll be fine on just this. I'm ate not all that long ago. Besides, you haven't been eating properly for the past few days, and I don't want you to eat too much. You'll get sick. We wouldn't want that, now, would we?" Sasuke jabbed the banana playfully at Naruto's tummy.

"Itadakimasu." Naruto said, closing his eyes and placed his palms together. He paused for a second, then added, "Well...I'll try to, anyways." ('Itadakimasu' means 'I will receive' in Japanese. OwO) Sasuke chuckled and began munching away at his banana. Naruto grinned and picked up an apple, brushing it off a little before starting to munch on his food as well.

O0O0O0O0O0O

Dawn came early that morning. The birds were up and chirping before the sun had fully risen. Naruto lay sprawled out on a large branch, snoring slightly, with half of a granola bar still in his hand.

Sasuke sat at the base of the branch, watching his friend with mild interest. He had been awake for about an hour now, listening to the wilderness around them and making sure that they weren't being followed. They had already fallen a few hours behind schedule; they were to be arriving in the Sand Village a few hours from then. But it didn't matter now. As long as Naruto got there, it didn't really matter on what time they arrived in the village. And besides, Gaara was to be meeting them at the very outskirts of the village, on the edge of the desert, so he could escort them to the village without them getting lost in the many sandy dunes. Sasuke was pretty sure that Naruto's safety was a greater priority than whether or not they arrived on time.

Naruto shifted in his sleep a little, his head tilting to the side and the hand with food in it sliding slightly. Sasuke sighed and looked up through the branches at the sky. A group of large, poofy clouds slowly rolled over them, their grey undersides somewhat threatening. A storm was approaching. Sasuke stood up and walked over to the sleeping Naruto.

"Naruto...Naruto..." he called gently, shaking his friend a little. Naruto grumbled.

"Naruto!" Sasuke said more urgently. Naruto's brow furrowed, and he opened his eyes blearily.

"Hmmmnn...hey, Sasuke." Naruto said, his voice crackling a little. "How long've you been up?"

"For a while now. But we've got to keep moving. We need to be within a mile of the Land of Wind before sundown." Sasuke said. Naruto's eyes went wide.

"The Land of Wind?! But that...that's miles from here! How're we-"

"If we move now, and move fast, we'll be able to get there before then." Sasuke interrupted him. "C'mon." He helped Naruto up. Naruto brushed himself off of lastnight's dinner's crumbs that had worked themselves into the folds of his hakama.

"You ready?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto nodded. They leapt off the branch. Naruto was a little surprised to see how much more strength he had now that he had gotten some food and a decent night's sleep. Right after they had shoved off, Naruto heard Sasuke make a funny noise from beside him. Turning his head, he saw that Sasuke's expression had changed to that of anger.

"What's up?" Naruto asked him quietly. Sasuke turned to him. His lips barely moved as he mouthed:

"...We're being followed."

O0O0O0O0O0O Back in the Leaf Village (This part's gonna confuse you all, lol. Explanation at end of chapter. OwO )

In the Hokage's office, Jiraiya slammed his fist onto the desk angrily as he stood up.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, HE'S GONE?!" he yelled at the two ANBU before him.

"He must have escaped somehow during the night. We're tracking him down now. We've sent ahead one of our best ANBU, as well as two of Naruto's friends." one of them replied. Jiraiya grumbled and sat back down.

"Why his friends?" he asked.

"We thought that they would be able to persuade him to come back. And they've seen his fighting style, so they'll know how to fight him." Jiraiya grumbled again.

"Do you have any idea how he escaped?"

"We think that Sasuke Uchiha could have helped him. We allowed him in to visit Naruto earlier that day. Naruto was far too weak to escape on his own like that." Jiraiya didn't reply right away. He was running everything through his head, trying to divise a plan to bring Naruto back without harming him. But first, they needed to know where he was headed.

"Do you know where they went?" he asked the ANBU.

"We have a vague idea. We found a few footprints in the dirt a few feet from the entrance of the prison, as well as tracks leading out of the village. We think that he might be heading Westward, toward the Land of Wind."

'Of course.' Jiraiya thought. 'Naruto and Gaara are pretty close friends, and Sasuke thinks that the best place to hide Naruto would be in a place that is nearly impossible to reach by foot. The Sand Village is the perfect place for them to hide. And with the Kazekage's powers, it could be dangerous for us to try and retrieve him.' Jiraiya closed his eyes briefly. 'We must get to him before they reach the desert. Otherwise, we might never get him back.'

"Find him, but don't fight him. He may retaliate by using the Kyuubi." Jiraiya dismissed the ANBU, then leaned back in his chair and sighed deeply.

'I'm sorry, Naruto,' he mused. 'but it's the only thing we can do.'

O0O0O0O0O0O Back to Naruto and Sasuke (sadism and fluff to confuse you D)

Naruto's eyes went wide.

"Followed!?" he whispered. "I thought you said-"

"That was last night. But they've only been following us for a short while now. If we hurry, we should be able to escape them." Sasuke said, keeping his voice at a whisper. They sped up.

"How many are there?" Naruto asked a short while later. Sasuke closed his eyes and concentrated.

"...two. No...three." he said, opening his eyes again. "There are three following us, but I think there might be a few more behind them." Naruto cursed. He kicked off of a branch a little too hard, rocketing himself forward. He didn't move one of his legs fast enough, and it hit a branch. The wood splintered, and a loud, resounding crack rang through the air. Naruto cried out in pain. A sharp, mind-numbing pain shot up his leg, and he screamed. He couldn't regain balance, and merely began to fall through the air.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled. He leapt into Naruto's path and caught him, then jumped onto a lower, thicker branch and stopped.

"Naruto, what happened?" Sasuke asked concernedly. Naruto whimpered and clutched onto his leg, but otherwise didn't respond. Sasuke turned to the leg Naruto was holding; A large, purple, black, and red bruise had started to form over a slightly caved-in part of his shin. The bone had broken. He looked back up to Naruto's face and saw that it was almost completely drained of color.

"It hurts..." he whimpered. "It hurts."

Sasuke leaned forward and wrapped his arms around him, cradling him and crooning softly to him.

"Shh, it's going to be alright. I'll fix it up for you." he crooned. Naruto looked up at him. "I'll put a brace on it and wrap it up, 'kay?" Naruto nodded. Sasuke stood up and started looking around, sizing up branches for the splint. He spotted a few nice-looking ones a short distance away and leapt away to get them. They were hard and sturdy and didn't flex very much. Perfect for a splint. He went back to Naruto with two of them, then set them down and started searching through his pack. After rummaging a small while, he pulled out some of the cloth bandaging that he had on his arms and set it next to the branches.

"You okay?" he asked Naruto, and Naruto nodded. Sasuke placed the two branches, which he had cut down to the size of Naruto's leg and had flattened one side, on either side of Naruto's broken leg. Holding the branches in place, he began to wrap the bandages around Naruto's leg. He winced a few times, but otherwise didn't complain. In about a minute, Naruto's leg was completely covered by a stick-and-cloth-bandage splint. When he was done, he helped Naruto stand again, with Sasuke helping support his weight as he stood with his injured leg out to one side.

"Does it hurt anymore?" he asked, and Naruto told him it didn't. "Alright." Sasuke paused before adding, "Well, this sucks."

"What?" Naruto asked. Sasuke sighed rather angrily.

"They've caught up with us." Sasuke said, and he glanced towards some trees to their right. Naruto didn't turn his head, but could sense them there.

"Damn." Naruto said quietly, and Sasuke laughed. He brought his arm away from Naruto, who leaned against him more heavily, and, reaching into his pocket, pulled out a kunai and a single paper bomb. He wrapped the bomb around the kunai, then, with the tiniest flick of the wrist, tossed it toward the ninja that were pursuing them.

A collective yell rang out, but was quickly drowned by the massive explosion from the bomb. Three blurred shadows scattered from their hiding places and came into view. Three men and a large, white dog landed on a branch just before them. A large cloud of smoke appeared and several more dogs joined the group.

Naruto's eyes went wide at the sight of their old sensei, Kakashi Hatake, as well as Neji Hyuuga and Kiba and Akamaru Inuzuka, with all of them surrounded by Kakashi's pack of dogs. Altogether, there were roughly a dozen of them. Naruto growled angrily and rounded on Sasuke.

"I thought you said there were three!" Naruto said.

"Well, I knew Akamaru was there, but I count him and Kiba to be one person." Sasuke explained, and Akamaru growled, obviously offended.

"Wow, that looks like it hurts." Kiba said to Naruto, indicating his leg. Kiba made to step forward, but Neji stopped him. Sasuke's free hand had moved to his sword, which he had begun to extract from its sheath threateningly.

"You won't have him." Sasuke said intimidatingly, his eyes glaring at them each in turn. Neji looked rather angry at them, and Kiba and Akamaru watched the two of them with pity. Kakashi's face, however, was unreadable, as it usually was.

Sasuke's glares of anger were interrupted suddenly as Naruto whimpered again. Sasuke looked over at him, and his eyes went wide; Naruto had paled again, and his face was contorted with pain. Sasuke looked down and saw that his hand was clutching his leg again, and that his toes were turning purple.

"Shit." Sasuke said, and wrapped his arms around Naruto again. Carefully, he lowered Naruto down onto the branch, then picked his broken leg up, much to Naruto's discomfort. A good while later, Sasuke addressed Kakashi and the others.

"We need to get him to a doctor. He can't take this much longer."

"Then take him back to the village!" Kiba said pleadingly. Akamaru barked in agreement. "Get him treatment there! I'm sure that Shizune or someone'll treat him-"

"No." Naruto said sharply, and everyone turned to him. His hair hung down over his eyes again as he stared down at his leg. "No... I can't."

"Why not?" Kiba asked.

"I...I can't go back there." Naruto continued. His hands curled into fists and his voice started shaking. "...not after what I've done. Not after what's happened. I can't..." Sasuke rubbed Naruto's back comfortingly, whispering to him that he didn't have to. From before them, Kakashi let out a huge, exasperating sigh.

"Fine." he said. Neji turned to him, shock lining his face.

"What do you mean, 'fine'?" he asked. "Are we just going to allow them to go and have them escape?"

"I'm not 'allowing' them escape." Kakashi said, and he turned to Sasuke. He watched him for a while before saying, "We'll escort you."

Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing. After all that they had been through, after tracking them all this way, he was going to let them go? He looked at Sasuke to see what his reaction was and saw that he was equally as disbelieving as he was. Neji and Kiba looked just as surprised and shocked as they were, for they, too, were staring at Kakashi.

"You're letting us go?" Sasuke said after a while, a hint of incredulity in his voice. Kakashi nodded. Sasuke was still a little shocked. "Th-thank you." he said.

Kakashi shook off Sasuke's gratitude. "Now, where are you two headed?" he asked.

"We're going to the Land of Wind, to Suna. Gaara will be meeting us at the edge of the desert to lead us to the village. And this little setback has cost us some time. We need to be within a mile of the desert before nightfall." Sasuke explained. Kakashi nodded.

"Alright then. Shall we get going?" he asked the general group. Sasuke nodded and helped Naruto to his feet again. Naruto swayed a little as he straightened up, but regained his composure quickly. Kakashi leaped over to him and Sasuke and wrapped Naruto's other arm around his neck. Then, with Neji, Kiba, and Akamaru following behind, they took off.

"So," Kiba began a while later. "a tree jumped out and bit'cha, huh?" Naruto glared at him.

"Shut up." he whined. Kiba laughed.

O0O0O0O0O0O

EXPLANATION TIME!  
Alright, you guys are probably all asking the same question: Why is Jiraiya in the Hokage's office? Well, my answer to that is this: in my friend and mine's story, we decided to kill off Tsunade. It happens in the first chapter, which makes it all the more exciting. Since I am planning on this story to be part of the other story, I had to make some changes to it. Did anyone notice that Kiba told Naruto to have Shizune heal him instead of Sakura? Well, I killed her off too.

Some of you are also probably asking: Why was Naruto in jail in the first place. Well, he's the one who killed Tsunade and Sakura, what else?

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know I did. I like to put my characters in pain. And the hint of SasuNaru in there's really good too, cuz I luffles SasuNaru and all who oppose it can go to hell for all I care.

lol just kidding. I like everyone. Even if some people get on my nerves sometimes. :D

PLEASE REVIEW!! 


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